Stephanie Hale says she is feeling free for the first time in a decade after her life was derailed by a sexual assault in a dorm room at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus.
Late last month, the tribunal ordered the University of British Columbia Okanagan to pay Hale $50,000 in compensation for injury to her dignity, feelings, self-respect, and the way it handled her allegation of sexual assault by another student. She was also awarded nearly $15,000 in lost wages and expenses.
The decision said, despite telling multiple people at the university that she had been raped, it took three years for the university to inform her about the complaint process. The tribunal said that although the university had a high-level understanding of sexual violence and a commitment to support survivors, its response didn’t result in a reasonable investigation process or restore a “discrimination-free learning environment.”
Hale said she will have no money left from the tribunal’s ruling after she pays back the debt she took on seeing the process through over the years, but said the decision is validating nonetheless. She went public with her plight, and didn’t necessarily want her name front and centre, but also didn’t want her name left out as is often the case in instances involving victims of sexual assault.